The inbetween
by Rago Dragovian
Summary: Attempts to answer the question of just what happened after Luke was knocked out from his fight with Asch, How Luke ended-up in Tear's care, and the thoughts and feelings of Asch, Luke, and Tear during that point. Disclaimer: Don't own the rights to Abyss


A/N: This one-shot is under the assumption that Luke lost, for obvious reasons, you'll see in the story.

**Luke's point of view with some third person perspective:**

"You're lying!" shouted Luke, "I'm not...".

He didn't want to say it, it was still too difficult for him to accept.

_'I simply can't, because it isn't true, just like how Akzeriuth wasn't my fault. It wasn't my fault! It simply couldn't have been. I'm not a murderer!' _Luke had continued with these thoughts throughout his time on the Malkuth landship _'The people in the city and that boy that drowned in the sludge hadn't died due to anything I did! They're wrong to blame me for it! It had been Van! Van had been the one to tell me to do it!' _And now a God-general, one of the enemies that had attacked them on so many occasions, was pointing the blade of his maestro sword at his throat.

Asch the Bloody's arrival had shocked Luke initially and then sent him into a blind rage when he claimed that he was the real Luke and that Luke was just some defective copy. Luke couldn't accept that.

'_I'm Luke!_' Luke thought, desperately attempting to hold in his feelings and sense of self, '_The one and only Luke! I'm no replica! I'm not someone's copy! I'm..I'm not some fake..._'

"I don't want to acknowledge it either! To think that dreck like you is my replica!" said Asch, facial features visibly tightening, "To think that trash like you stole my family, my home...everything from me! I'm going to be sick."

Luke could almost feel the disgust radiating off of the God-general. Luke knew, just looking up at his own face, Asch meant every word.

"Die!" Asch finally yelled out as he prepared to shove his sword through Luke's throat.

And those were the final words Luke heard before finally succumbing to the pain of his injuries and emotional exhaustion.

**Asch's point of view with some third person perspective:**

"Stop!" Asch almost jumped at the voice, he had forgot Tear had been watching the fight.

Asch turned his gaze around and was startled, though he didn't show it outwardly, to see the Melodist with a weapon out, pointed at him with a glare marring her features.

"You can't be serious. You actually care about this dreck? After what he's just done?" said Asch, honestly, he couldn't see how anyone had any sympathy for the replica after what had just happened.

"That doesn't give you the excuse to murder someone. Oracle knights may only do so under the orders of the Commandant, the Grand Maestro, or the Fon Master." said Tear calmly.

Asch picked-up on the subtle message. If he killed the dreck now she would assume he was under orders to do so and the only one who could give him could, or rather would, give him those orders were Van.

'_If she wants to play a diplomatic front then fine_' thought Asch, '_It shouldn't take too much to get through to her.'_

"I'm under no one's orders." said Asch smoothly, "It's common military procedure to kill any wanton criminals that are in the process of a crime or have caused a crime. Especially murder cases, and this dreck just killed thousands."

Asch had to reason with her, he wasn't strong enough to take her on at the moment due to the injuries he had sustained in the fight with the dreck. Asch would never admit it but had it not been for his comments throughout the fight causing the replica to go into blind charges and opening up points of weakness, he would have lost. He would die before ever admitting that though. Asch didn't understand why this girl was going through this trouble anyway, she should be smart enough to realize that the replica had a huge potential risk to the Outer Lands if kept alive.

"Fon Master Ion would not take kindly to a murder occuring here in Yulia city, nor would the people living here." said Tear, rod never wavering from its position.

"You aren't a representative of the Fon Master and therefore can not speak of his decisions on any actions I make on this...Kimlascan." said Asch, forcibly trying to remain calm. "Furthermore, the Fon Master isn't even present and the people living in this city have no bearing upon the Order of Lorelei whatsoever, even if this city holds the name Yulia."

This was frustrating him. He had come here to simply kill the replica, he hadn't thought anyone would try to stop him after what had just happened. From a military standpoint the boy was too much of a liability, Van didn't give two cents what happened to him anymore, Kimlasca would assume him dead anyway, and the group the replica had been with had clearly abandoned him. All except Van's damn sister for some unfathomable reason.

"I won't allow you to kill him." said Tear, evenly and firmly.

"What possible reason could you have to give a damn, anyway?!" shouted Asch, finally getting fed-up with formally debating with her and her insistance on stopping him from killing the dreck. "This trash is a liability to everyone living in the Outer Lands! He was so delusioned into being a hero for Van it was disgusting! I told this piece of crap to stop before he even went past the Daathic Seal and he didn't listen. How can you not let me kill him?!"

"Of course he didn't listen to you!" snapped Tear, trying to keep her voice calm while speaking to the infuriated God-general. "If you hadn't noticed you attempted to kill him in Kaitzur, restrained him on a machine in Choral Castle, and apparently took control of his body and forced him to draw his sword on me in a public area in Chesedonia, did you honestly expect him to believe anything you told him after all that?"

Asch glared at her in anger. He took a deep breath.

"Are you saying it's my fault?" said Asch, attempting to remain calm.

"Of course not, I'm saying you should have put more effort in trying to gain his-no, all of our trust." said Tear.

"Like gaining his trust would have made a difference, he was so set on every little thing Van told him." said Asch, "He would have-"

"We don't know what he would have done." said Tear, cutting him off mid-sentence, "You never even tried to gain his trust."

Asch snorted. "Fine, do as you please" Asch said, sheathing his sword as he began walking towards the city.

"Wait, you're just going to leave him here..?!" said Tear, surprised Asch had finally caved in and was going to simply leave Luke lying there.

Asch had already walked past her and turned his head back to look at her.

"If you care about that dreck so much then you move him." sneered Asch, turning his head and walking off, "I've got better things to do. Like finding a way to get back to the Outer Lands."

"Wait! My grandfather is the mayor of this place and can help you find a way to get back up the Outer lands, if you help me with...," Tear stopped speaking when she noticed that Asch had ignored her and continued walking.

**Tear's point of view with some third person perspective:**

Tear sighed. She hadn't expected it to be so difficult to reason with Asch and had been ready to attack him had he made any threatening gestures towards Luke with his sword still pointed close. Her body groaned in protest as she heaved Luke up and tried to drag him with his weight leaning on her with his arm held around the back of her neck with her hand holding it in place. Her other arm attempting to hold up his body and failing miserably as she moved him, or tried to move him, to her house.

"Mieuuuu, should I go get help Tear?" asked Mieu, he had stayed quiet during the whole event until now and would have gone to Luke's aid had Tear not stopped him before pulling her rod and pointing it at Asch. Mieu had, at that point, felt assured his master would be safe with Tear stopping the God-general.

"No, Mieu, I don't know how any of them would react if they saw Luke vulnerable like this." said Tear, honestly she just didn't want to risk it after the argument she just had with Asch, she also didn't want Mieu anywhere near the residents for fear they may try to steal the Sorcerer's ring, thinking the cheagle had taken it away from the woods and broke the pact, or risk one of the four others in the group overhearing Luke's current condition. She didn't worry about Asch telling them since he would most likely be looking to find a way to leave the Qliphoth, at least, at the moment.

"Mieuuuu" whined Mieu, realizing he was once again proven to be of no use in a situation. "I'm sorry for not being able to help."

"D-don't worry, really, you were more than useful when we were in the Zao Ruins." said Tear, "Besides, I should be the one that's sorry."

"Mieu, what do you mean?" asked Mieu, curious about what Tear was talking about.

"N-nothing, don't worry about it." said Tear, quickly, not wanting to burden the cheagle with her inner troubles. Mieu had obviously been burdened enough just by his concern for Luke's state.

Tear kept trudging Luke to her home, she couldn't help thinking of the what-if's of this situation, even if she had tried to dispell them just after Akzeriuth had been destroyed. What-if scenarios were, after all, completely pointless. Still she couldn't help but feel responsible due to her own guilt.

'_What if I had stayed in the tunnels and not gone to check on the first sign of the seventh fonstone?_'thought Tear, '_I..I'm ashamed of myself, when did I become so desperate for my search of the seventh fonstone that I would abandon a town filled with people suffering from overexposure to the miasma? Even if Grand Maestro Mohs ordered me to search for it, it's no excuse for me to simply abandon people who are sick and on the verge of dying at a moments notice._'

'_Had I stayed, I probably would have kept an eye on Luke or at least noticed he had gone deeper into the tunnels, had I stuck with him, I...I could have stopped Luke from destroying Akzeriuth...I could have stopped Van from doing all this.._' Tear went through her home's threshold and began dragging Luke up the stairs, not wanting to chance leaving him in the downstairs bedroom in case any of the party decided to do anything rash to Luke, or more notably, not wanting to chance Asch changing his mind. '_If only I had simply watched Luke, all those people wouldn't have died, and Luke wouldn't be in this state_.' Tear lay Luke down on her bed and began healing his wounds.

After finishing she took time to go to her garden and pray to Yulia privately for the, now dead, residents of Akzeriuth. After that, she decided to go see if Asch needed any of his wounds healed and have her grandfather help him and the others get back to the Outer Lands. Van obviously had a reason for planning Akzeriuth's destruction and she was sure he was planning more atrocitious. The sooner the group got back to the Outer Lands the better. She decided to stay here though, to make help Luke when he woke-up, he would surely leave for the Outer Lands, possibly for his home in Baticul or whatever he planned on doing. She would stay here to make sure that Luke recovered safely.


End file.
